http://www.resourceshelf.com sends us this article from the Spartan Daily regarding theft in the campus library.
“Despite having a better security system than in the Clark Library, some students still feel that their belongings aren’t safe in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library.
George Mendoza, a junior majoring in civil engineering, said he used to feel safe while working as a student assistant in the library for the Cultural Heritage Center.
“My wife works here on the weekends,” Mendoza said. “(Last weekend) she was working alone on the sixth floor, university level. Someone approached her for reference help, so she went to a lower floor to use the computer. Someone stole her wedding ring and key card she had left unattended for five minutes.””
How’s about a little common sense?
Someone stole a wedding ring and key card while they were left unattended for five minutes? One word: DUH.
As far as I’m concerned, anything left unattended out in public is fair game for theft. If you don’t want it stolen, then don’t leave it lying around. Many libraries, whether public or academic, have problems with theft. Just today, one of my pages found a reference book hidden behind the stacks. Someone opened up the spine with a sharp object, probably a razor given what I know about blades, and removed the tattle-tape. They peeled off the spine label too. My guess is that they stashed it and intended to come back and actually steal it later, now that the alarm wouldn’t go off.
And besides, I don’t care how many cameras or how many security personnel you have, if someone wants to steal something badly enough, they’re going to find a way. Given something as small and unobtrusive as a wedding ring and keycard, anything like that lying around is extremely easy to lift, even with security monitoring. One easy way is simple sleight of hand. Take a largish book over to where the card and ring are. Set the book down on top of them like you don’t know that they’re there and pretend you’re trying to find something. Slip a hand underneath the book and pick it up along with the stuff underneath. Then walk away. Unless someone’s paying close attention, you’ll score some gold and maybe more now that you have a keycard.
Or you could just take your stuff with you perchance that it won’t get jacked.
P.S. I found the idea of someone stealing a water bottle almost funny. Nine times out of ten, if you can act like it belongs to you, most people with think it does.
Re:How’s about a little common sense?
As far as I’m concerned, anything left unattended out in public is fair game for theft.
While I’m sure you don’t mean it this way, when you say “fair game for theft”, a person could understand you to mean that there was no fault on the thief’s part in taking those things.
It doesn’t though seem like the wisest of moves to have left the ring and card unattended and where they could be spotted and taken.